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League tables published for Barnsley secondary schools

Barnsley is among the thousands of secondary schools across England who have their GCSE results published by the Department for Education as part of an annual report.

This year's results are for last year's academic year, which ended in the summer of 2018.

The national standards look at pupils’ performance throughout secondary education, measuring progress (Progress 8), and attainment (Attainment 8) across a suite of eight qualifications.

The new, tougher, standards have replaced the measure of the proportion of pupils gaining A* to C grades in five GCSE subjects, including English and maths.

On the new grading system of one to nine (with nine as the top grade), schools are judged on a grade five and above. A grade four is the minimum pass level and is equivalent to an old C grade.

At Key Stage 4, the percentage of Barnsley students achieving a grade four or better in both English language/literature and maths was 61 per cent compared with 59 per cent nationally, which means Barnsley remains above national on this measure.

Barnsley’s Progress 8 score was -0.15; below the national average of -0.02.

The Attainment 8 score has decreased from 44.0 in 2017 to 42.5 in 2018. This means that the gap with the England (all schools) score has widened from -0.6 points to -2.0 points. Although there was a decrease in the England average between 2017 and 2018, this was at the much lower rate of -0.1 points.

However, for progress, seven out of 10 schools are considered average or above.

Cllr Tim Cheetham, Cabinet Spokesperson for People (Achieving Potential) said: “Barnsley has come a long way over the past few years, bucking the national trend in some areas, and I firmly believe that this improvement will continue.

“Although it is right for schools to target the basics (maths and English) we recognise that we need to do better across the breadth of the curriculum.

“In terms of Progress 8 which measures from students’ starting points, we continue to improve our rankings. We have a legacy of pupils beginning off from low starting points but progress is improving year on year.

“Given where we have come from, we are confident that things are going in the right direction.

“We are working through the Barnsley Schools Alliance to provide support to schools and we anticipate improved results in 2019 in those schools that did not perform so well this year.”

This news is linked to Town Spirit. We want to work better together. If everyone in Barnsley does just one thing, together we can make our borough a more welcoming place where people want to live, work and visit.

We’re committed to #AchieveIt by doing everything we can to help you and your family achieve your potential and be the best that you can be. Own it by supporting your children to attend school and learn for life, as well as committing to learning and developing your own career.